On today's designs, it is more likely than ever that mixed technologies such as analog, digital, and RF share the same PCB. Because tiny variations of the RF layout have a major impact on circuit performance, manual design techniques and workarounds are required to address RF-specific design challenges. Unfortunately, manual techniques are slow and prone to error. Such challenges abound in a variety of PCB markets, including consumer electronics, communications, and wireless applications.

The suite of RF-aware capabilities, now available in Allegro PCB Design, include intelligent layout for parametrically creating and editing RF geometries, a flexible shape editor, and data-aware bi-directional IFF interfaces. Through bi-directional interfaces, engineers can simulate and validate RF circuits for signal quality and performance.

"The integration of RF devices on PCBs is creating serious high-frequency and wireless design challenges for our customers," said Charlie Giorgetti, corporate vice president, Product Marketing, Cadence. "This new PCB RF design technology and methodology is another key enhancement in the Allegro PCB design flow that enables our customers to speed more reliable designs to market."

The new PCB RF technology and design methodology will be available as an add-on option for Allegro PCB Design HDL XL and Allegro PCB Design HDL GXL offerings in the Allegro system interconnect design platform 16.0 release scheduled for customer shipment in June 2007.